As November draws near, things are getting more stressful for seniors. The first round of deadlines for college applications, otherwise known as Early Action (EA) or Early Decision (ED), is approaching rapidly. College applications and difficult classes cause intense stress for seniors. Such stress often creates a competitive environment that harms multiple groups of people. Obviously, it hurts the students applying to college because of their desire to get into a “good” school. What truly makes a “good school” is all subjective. Further, it promotes the notion that attending college is the only viable path to success. It also impacts the juniors and sophomores as their world already revolves around trying to get into a prestigious college. This prevents them from spending their time on genuine interests. It’s going to take a group effort to get rid of this tension and high-stakes environment that typically forms as the college applications begin to be sent.
Several years ago, The Cypress implemented a ban on “college talk”. This ban is in place during class time and our Cypress spaces. Typically, we begin the year rather successfully, but as early acceptances and rejections come back, people begin to break and bend the rules. To a certain extent, it’s useless to try to snuff out “college talk.” It is not inherently stressful or bad, and banning it completely often makes people even more anxious. So, for this reason, we need to start using our judgment to decide when a comment about college is productive or not. Pulling a friend away during a club meeting or team practice and venting to them about your college frustrations is not bad, nor is giving a junior a piece of advice on the application process. It’s human nature to be upset, but it’s probably a good idea to avoid telling your teammates all your extracurriculars and lamenting about how you “got rejected from all your safeties.”
However, many positive things can come out of banning college talk. For one, it creates a less stressful environment for everyone, but especially for seniors who already think about their college paths everyday. In addition, by doing this, harmful comparisons are eliminated.
Overall, unnecessary stress brings everyone down.
Ultimately, college is not a necessary part of anyone’s life, but rather a means of getting from high school to jobs that require college degrees. There is no point in sacrificing your happiness and your mental health for a college application.
You can’t spend your entire life delaying the things you want. Live the life you want, not the life that other people view as best. We as a staff haven’t always been the best at banning “college talk,” but we hope that as a school we can do better. But remember that in order to get there, a combined effort on behalf of all high school students and teachers is necessary.
